Divine comfort foods

Warm, creamy, cheesy, tender, buttery—this issue, we’re serving up a gooey forkful of comfort foods to tuck into. From grilled cheese to chili, these dishes will melt the chilliest of hearts (and hands, if you’re wrapping yours around a bowl of tomato soup). Read more here.

Photo: Rammelkamp Foto

Wine and dine

Ever thought about your Virginia wine bucket list? Our wine columnist, Erin Scala, spills, er, spells it out for you in this issue, with 10 perfect spots for sipping (and what to eat while you’re there). Sharpen your pencils—and don’t forget to hydrate. Read more here.

Much in the way that giving directions to a newcomer will never not be thrilling (or is that just us?), recommending an essential dining experience is also a rite of passage: It ups your townie cred and, if you’ve steered the novice correctly, shows off our local culinary aptitude. The food

While Jon Bray says he can’t pinpoint which particular dish got him into the food industry, he can specify a time (he was 14), a reason (“my parents repealed the Weekly Allowance Act”) and a place (Bellair Market). It was the beginning of a nearly 20-year career in Charlottesville kitchens,

Where did all the caviar go? Hard to say, but the fact that it went out of style in our area probably had something to do with the 2015 closing of Downtown Mall seafood joint Blue Light Grill. At least one local restaurant thinks it’s time for a roe revival. Tavern & Grocery has had […]

We’re not fans of the candy corn and skeletons that appear on store shelves in July. And don’t get us started on Christmas merchandise that shows up before the leaves begin to fall. But there’s one holiday-related item we do suggest you think about now: a pasture-raised Thanksgiving turkey from

On a picturesque, 92-acre hillside ranch in southern Ivy, native Virginian Alex Toomy and two partners have launched an enterprise centered on a perfect pairing: bourbon and beef. Craft distillery Ragged Branch, now open for business after five years of preparation and two more of

You know the saying—“secrets secrets are no fun, unless they’re shared with everyone”—and though it’s likely been a while since you singsong sassed that to a friend on the playground, we’ll remind you that secrets are no fun unless they’re shared with everyone, and we have one to share: There’s

It all began with a little generosity from Mother Nature. “We had a Pinot Gris block come in heavier than expected,” says Joy Ting, enologist and project manager at Michael Shaps Wineworks. “Since the excess had not been slated for a specific wine, and it was early in harvest, we realized we

Eggnog is a pretty polarizing holiday beverage—you either love it or you hate it. But for all the haters out there, have you ever had real eggnog? Not the goopy, eggy stuff poured out of a carton, but the real deal, a thick-but-fluffy stirred custard that could be ice cream were it not for its

It may not look like anything fancy, but the old-school banana split at Chandler’s Ice Cream (that throwback soft-serve stand by the Tractor Supply store on River Road) is a summertime must-have. Served in a styrofoam container, it’s two bananas, split down the middle and piled high with ice

Spam musubi is a dish in which the aforementioned Hormel pork product is grilled, laid on a block of sticky white rice and wrapped together with nori, in the Japanese style. In Hawaii, where more Spam is consumed per capita than any other state in the union, Spam musubi is ubiquitous: available

We’re not saying summer is the season for drinking (that’s every season), but there’s something about it that makes us want to mingle. The pages that follow will introduce you to barkeeps, regulars and what you should be drinking right now. We’ll even make the case that Charlottesville does, in

A landowner and a farmer walk into an agriculture- themed social hour. Holly Maillet, a botanical artist and avid gardener, owns 55 acres of sun-splashed land in Madison County that she’d like to use productively. Katharine Wilson, a 26-year-old crew leader at Bellair Farm, has dreams of

Writer, playwright, counselor—chef Javier Figueroa-Ray has worn many hats. But, to hear him tell it, cooking and poetry aren’t that different. “When I moved to the mainland, my writing muse stopped and I began cooking,” he says. “I remembered all of my family cooking and began incorporating

Several decades into Virginia’s booming post-Prohibition wine economy, we are starting to home in on some special vineyard sites throughout the state. In France, you’ll find heavily protected and coveted Grand Cru and Premier Cru sites; in other wine-centric countries you’ll find similar

Breakfast, they say, is the most important meal of the day. But we’d wager that whoever said that had never had brunch. If they had, they’d know there are few things finer than waking up on Saturday morning only to meet friends at table in the cool spring air and hunker down for an hour […]

The only thing better than one dessert? A whole assortment of desserts. Grit recently added cakes, brûlées and tarts to the coffee shop’s menu of small plates. Currently only available at the Stonefield location (and only on weekends), the bite-sized selection will pair with the restaurant’s

Let’s take a moment to celebrate the unsung culinary heroes, shall we? The sweet potato casserole so often overshadowed by the turkey. The tricolore salad pushed aside to make room for the pulled pork. Side dishes are so much more than fillers. Plus, cobbling together a meal out of sides is

Craving something fresh and green on your lunch break? These six spots boast a robust mix of ingredients—including local leafy greens. Now you just have to kick your bad habit of eating lunch at your desk. The Earlysville The Salad Maker The newest addition to Charlottesville’s local salad

In a delicious commitment to serving beyond good eats, a few local restaurants are making inedible differences by also serving altruistically. Here’s a sampling of eateries nourishing communities with more than savory fare. Serving the hungry Albemarle Baking Co. deserves acknowledgment for its

What says spring cuisine more than a salad? Answer: nothing. “I looooove salads,” says chef Tyler Teass. And it shows. From simple greens to grilled endives, his Brasserie Saison menu is overflowing with them (“and I plan on keeping it that way,” he says). But it’s this one, with peas both snap